plumnovel Chapter 57 Every Second Counts! A Race Against Time!
Chapter 57 Every Second Counts! A Race Against Time!
Zhu Que's face was covered in blood, his clothes were tattered, and his right arm hung limply at his side. Every step he took seemed to exhaust all his strength.
"Zhu Que!" Tang Ke exclaimed, overjoyed. "See? I told you he might still be alive!"
"This person?"
Su Zhen narrowed his eyes slightly.
He looked at Zhu Que's blood-stained face and felt that he looked very familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere before...
"Zhu Que! Are you alright?!" Tang Ke rushed over.
"I……"
Zhu Que's voice was hoarse. He raised his left hand and pointed to his throat, indicating that he couldn't speak for the time being.
His eyes were glazed over, and his body swayed precariously, as if he might faint at any moment.
"Doctor! Doctor! Where's the doctor?!"
Tang Ke hurriedly shouted loudly.
Zhu Que was the only one who stood up at the crucial moment and bravely fought against the kidnappers with her, which filled her with gratitude.
"Where is Qiao Kun, the kidnapping ringleader?"
Su Zhen strode up to Zhu Que and asked in a deep voice.
Zhu Que's eyes were unfocused. He struggled to raise his hand and pointed to the depths of the warehouse. Then his body went limp and he almost collapsed.
"Get him to the hospital quickly!"
Su Zhen made a decisive move and led his men into the warehouse.
Zhu Que was lifted into the ambulance, the driver turned on the siren, and drove towards Jinfeng Town Hospital.
We had only been driving for less than five minutes.
Zhu Que's previously weak eyes instantly became clear, and he sat up amidst the astonished gazes of the two accompanying doctors.
"Hey, hey, lie down quickly, don't let the wound get worse," the accompanying doctor said hurriedly.
"I'm fine."
Zhu Que shook his head and said to the ambulance driver, "Doctor, please turn onto Qingze Street."
"This is an ambulance; we need to go to the town hospital..."
"I have some healing medicine with me, I have to go back, otherwise I can't afford the hospital treatment."
"Okay then."
The accompanying doctor, who had been hesitant, immediately asked upon hearing that Zhu Que couldn't afford the treatment: "Where are you going?"
"Qingze Subdistrict Sixth Landfill!"
……
the other side.
Su Zhen arrived at the entrance of the massive garbage pit and asked, "How was the barrier opened?"
"We forced our way in."
"Come down with me!"
Without thinking twice, Su Zhen leaped into the giant garbage pit.
After landing, she turned on her flashlight and was completely stunned by the scene before her.
This place was originally a garbage pit for burying old and broken items.
But now it is a scene of devastation.
The ground was riddled with craters, and debris was scattered everywhere. The air was thick with the acrid smell of gunpowder and burnt metal.
The walls were riddled with bullet holes and charred marks from explosions.
"Search thoroughly immediately! Don't miss any corner!" Su Zhen ordered in a deep voice.
"receive!"
The officers immediately dispersed and began a thorough search for clues.
Soon, a stream of search information began to arrive.
"Report! A corpse has been discovered. Facial features are unrecognizable. The head was completely smashed by a gunshot. According to instrument analysis, the deceased's cultivation level was late-stage Qi Refining."
"Report! Traces of a large-scale series of explosions have been discovered. Judging from the distribution of the craters and the blast radius, it is suspected to have been caused by the simultaneous detonation of dozens of stun grenades."
"Report! A teleportation array has been discovered deep within the giant crater, but there are no signs of it being activated."
"Report! Another corpse has been discovered. The limbs are mangled. According to instrument analysis, the deceased's cultivation level was at the early stage of Foundation Establishment."
"..."
Su Zhen listened to the reports and then examined the corpse of the Foundation Establishment stage cultivator.
"This corpse is most likely Qiao Kun. So he didn't escape at all; he died here..."
"But how did he die?"
Su Zhen looked at the first corpse, "Could it be that they both suffered heavy losses against this late-stage Qi Refining cultivator?"
Suddenly, she remembered the blood-soaked boy from earlier and vaguely sensed that something was amiss.
Su Zhen immediately rushed out of the warehouse, found Tang Ke and her father, and questioned them, "That young man's name is Zhu Que, right?"
"Yes." Tang Dongfang nodded slightly.
"What exactly is his identity?"
"He's just an ordinary employee at our landfill, what else could he be?" Tang Dongfang wondered.
"Retrieve Zhu Que's identity information!"
Su Zhen gave an order to the police officer standing nearby.
"yes!"
The officer immediately operated the equipment and reported to the superior:
"Zhu Que, an ordinary employee at the Sixth Garbage Dump in Qingze Subdistrict, Jinfeng Town, Guangyang City, with no cultivation level..."
"He has no cultivation?" Su Zhen asked, frowning.
"He's just a lowly employee at a garbage dump, what cultivation could he possibly have?" Tang Dongfang said.
"No, Zhu Que has cultivation."
Tang Ke recalled the scene just now, "When I saw him fighting the kidnappers, he had at least the cultivation level of the early stage of Qi Refining."
Su Zhen asked, "Early stage Qi Refining cultivation? Why isn't he registered with the testing and evaluation center?"
"Is he at the early stage of Qi Refining?"
Tang Dongfang asked in surprise, "That's strange. He's always acted very ordinary. Could it be that he's been secretly cultivating all this time?"
"Cultivating in secret..."
Su Zhen narrowed her eyes slightly, as if she had suddenly thought of something, and asked a crucial question—
"Has he visited a testing and evaluation center recently?"
"he……"
Tang Ke paused, vaguely sensing that something was wrong, and was considering whether to help Zhu Que cover for him.
Tang Dongfang said, "He has been there."
Su Zhen immediately pressed, "Which day did you go?"
"I forgot the exact date, but the first time he accompanied my daughter to the evaluation center, it was probably the day the innate demon seed was discovered."
Tang Dongfang recalled for a moment and said.
This statement came out.
Su Zhen's pupils suddenly contracted, and she said sharply, "Where is he? Where is that Zhu Que now?!"
"He was taken to Jinfeng Town Hospital by ambulance..."
"Come with me!!"
Su Zhen and several police officers got into the police car.
……
Qingze Subdistrict, Sixth Garbage Dump.
As soon as the ambulance came to a stop, Zhu Que jumped out and ran wildly toward the junkyard.
For Zhu Que.
This is a life-or-death moment where every second counts.
If Su Zhen were perceptive enough to carefully examine the battle traces in the giant pit, he would soon begin to suspect his identity.
Once the police apprehend him and conduct tests, his identity as a born demon will be exposed—
Because of the counterfeit magical artifact he created, "Mantle of the Black Jade," each use only lasts for 12 hours.
He used the Black Jade of the Sky at around 6 a.m., and now it is 8 p.m.
12 hours have passed!
Even worse—
In the massive garbage crater we just left, a large number of old and broken items were destroyed due to multiple violent explosions.
Before leaving, he collected some fragments of artifacts needed to replicate the Black Jade of the Sky, but he was still missing a few first-tier gold artifacts.
Without those gold artifacts, he couldn't replicate the Black Jade of the Sky, so he had to rush back to the junkyard immediately.
Before the police could react, he forged a replica of the Black Jade of the Sky to conceal his identity as a born demon.
"Clang!"
Zhu Que pushed open the rusty iron gate and plunged into the pile of old and broken artifacts, quickly rummaging through several first-tier gold items.
Finally, when he had gathered all the materials, he turned around and found Sun Zheng staring at him with a surprised expression.
"Zhu Que? What happened to you?"
"Brother Sun, could you please do me a favor?"
Zhu Que approached Sun Zheng and spoke rapidly and solemnly:
"Go and lock the iron gate tightly. Don't open it no matter who knocks. Delay it for as long as you can!"
"this……"
Sun Zheng was slightly taken aback. Although he didn't understand why, he nodded when he saw how anxious Zhu Que was.
"Okay, leave it to me."
"Thanks, Brother Sun!"
Zhu Que didn't say much. He grabbed the goldware and rushed into a small room in the corner, closed the door, and began to imitate the Mantian Black Jade!
First, the first-tier fragment was replicated into a second-tier spiritual weapon, and then the second-tier spiritual weapon was placed in the nine-square grid.
It takes a certain amount of time to replicate a third-tier spiritual weapon.
Every second now is a matter of life and death.
Because he didn't know when Su Zhen would realize he was having problems, nor did he know when she would come after him.
Time passed by, second by second.
Zhu Que's heart pounded wildly. Just as the imitation of the Mantian Black Jade was about to be successful, the iron gate outside was suddenly smashed violently—
"Bang bang bang!"
"Open the door!"
That's Su Zhen's voice!
So fast?!
Zhu Que's expression changed slightly as he looked at the replica of the nine-square grid, which would take about half a minute to complete.
His heart jumped into his throat.
If the police break in now, even if the Mantian Black Jade is successfully counterfeited, he won't have a chance to use it.